Care, Knowledge, and Rights: Advancing the Leadership of Indigenous Persons with Disabilities'(COSP19 Side Event)

Good morning, everyone.
Welcome to all of you who are joining us in the room this morning and for those joining us online, my name is Damon Griffith.
I'm the moderator for this morning's side event entitled Care Knowledge and Rights, Advancing the Leadership of Indigenous Persons with Disabilities.
I'm joined today by my co chair of the Global Network of Indigenous People with Disability, Olga Montefi from Mexico, as well as members of the Global Network of Indigenous people with disability, Laneta from Fiji, Auntie Kay Sadler, Waraai woman from Australia, Chrissy Cowan, Maori woman from AT Aroa, And we would like to acknowledge the sponsorship of the governments of Guatemala, Mexico, Canada and Australia of this morning's side event.
Before handing over to our first speaker, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners on the land in which we meet today, the Lenape people.
Acknowledge and thank them, acknowledge their elders, past, present, and emerging.
I'd now like to hand over to the Vice President of the International Disability Alliance and President of Rias Juan Hanal De Gove to deliver the opening remarks on behalf of the International Disability Alliance.
Thank you.
Good friends on behalf of the International Disability Alliance and Radis, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the event.
We thank you government of Mexico, Guatemala, Canada and Australia for their support and for the presence of their distinguished representatives.
As we mark 20 years since the adoption of the CRPD, we must ask a difficult question, who has been reached by this transformative instrument and who remains at its margins? For indigenous persons with disabilities disability is not experienced outside land, language, kinship, spirituality, colonization, displacement, poverty, and collective identity.
Yet too often the CRPD has been interpreted through frameworks that do not fully hear indigenous ways of knowing belonging and decision making.
This is one of the major unfinished tasks of the CRPD to understand disability rights from indigenous perspective, not as an addition, but as necessary transformation of how we understand dignity, autonomy, community, and justice.
Last year, the Special porteur on the rights of Indigenous people brought long overdue attention to indigenous persons with disabilities.
That report reminds us that the CRPD and the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples must be read together.
Today, we also celebrate the refreshing global network of indigenous persons with disabilities with members across four continents.
This network carries a deep history from indigenous advocates in the CRPD negotiations in 2012 and to the 2012 Caucus to the global network established back in 2013, and now to this renew movement.
The IDA is proud to support this network, made grow as a space where both histories, both struggles, and both visions for justice can lead us forward.
We understand all of the plenty of movements and the issues that the indigenous persons has lived through all of these years.
As I mentioned, from 2012, 2013, and as I mentioned previously, we are proud to support the indigenous network We hopefully have a ground as a space where these both histories can make together and strong activism and only just we know that they are under supported group, and also we need to look back to our roots to get together, a strong voice from the indigenous collectives and the disability collective.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, everyone, and thank you to the International Disability Alliance for your ongoing support for the global network.
We're very grateful and we look forward to a long term partnership.
We also look forward to taking up membership of the International Disability Alliance this year.
Thank you very much.
It's my great pleasure to introduce my fellow co chair, Olga Montefa from Mexico, who's going to deliver the keynote remarks for our session.
Thank you, Olga.
Man mechanisms is more important Europa, or mismo mechanism, abs abit multiple territorio, economics exorsrtur racismo, la falta de crisis, la casa representations Catabase must be sibillascris climatic.
Embargo, Las person Pipsra las local en de mercado transforma de exclusion, particular mental capacita a for talla resistencia resulting a necesita la participated, para proximas integral intercultural leader.
Oecus significa indispensable.
Thank you, Olga.
As is the indigenous way of doing business, we'll be keenly accepting questions after every speaker has spoken today, so there's an opportunity for everyone to participate.
It's my great pleasure now to introduce speakers from Guatemala and Canada as member state delegates who have co sponsored this morning's side event.
I'd like to hand over now to Mr.
William Zapta Osario, the Technical Director of the National Council for the Care of Persons with Disability, Guatemala.
Thank you.
Guatemala, in Guatemala.
A we also are strengthening the offices at the municipal level for disabilities of At least today, what we are seeing is 45 offices installed in the different municipalities, We also understand that strengthening or creating policies that are effective without statistics is not something that is logical, which is why today, with international support and especially from organizations at the local level, we are trying to find the registries of people with disabilities.
This allows us to have more targeted approach at the local level, but also to have projects that assist the specific needs of each group.
We are building the new policy for disabilities in 2020, 2037, to be able to join this with the convention of people with Disabilities, which today, it's 20 years we are seeing.
However, despite the fact that we have been moving these actions forward in a direct way towards strengthening the rights of people with disabilities from their own territories, we have clarity that this is also exclusion that we are continuing to see for us people with disabilities.
It is still something that we need to approach from an institutional perspective, like the Disabilities Council of Guatemala.
People like me, people like us, people with disabilities do not just have to be seen as such.
We also have to be protagonists of our own development and especially pushing forward our own needs.
In Guatemala, we continue to strengthen our commitment.
Today in this event, we confirm that we are part of this process for the strengthening of indigenous people with disabilities.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Much Gracias William, usera Aurora, Deir Cat Delegado de Canada.
Is Catherine Jeremia and.
Mi is Little Bird in the flowers.
Mire is the caribou crianad Ocho and Norte de Ontario in Ontario, Atismochjerz inj.
These issues are not separate from indigenous communities.
They are deeply connected.
In Northern Ontario, many of our communities are already experiencing the impacts of climate change and environmental emergencies.
We see wildfires, flooding, evacuations and ongoing challenges.
Accessing essential services for many Canadians and evacuation is a rare event.
For many First Nations, it's something that happens again and again.
When communities are forced to leave, the impacts are not felt equally.
Elders, knowledge keepers, and people with disabilities and people living with chronic health conditions are often among the first who must leave.
They're also the people who carry our teachings.
They know our stories, our languages, our histories, and our medicines.
Every time a community is displaced, there's disruption, not only to health care and services, but also to culture, connection, and knowledge transfer.
For many indigenous peoples, being removed from our communities has a long and painful history.
Many of our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents experienced residential schools, day schools, and the 60 Scoop.
My own family has been directly impacted by these systems.
These policies disrupted families, languages, cultures, and traditional knowledge.
Today, communities are working hard to reclaim what was taken from us.
We are revitalizing our languages, learning from elders and knowledge keepers, reconnecting with the land, and relearning traditional medicines and teachings that sustained our people for generations.
I also want to acknowledge the incredible work indigenous youth are doing.
Across the North, young people are standing up to protect our lands, our waters, and communities.
They are advocating for the protection of peatlands, forests, and waterways because they understand that protecting the environment is much more than nature.
For indigenous peoples, protecting the land means protecting our medicines, it means protecting our food sources, it means protecting our cultures and our ways of life.
Water is life.
Many northern and remote communities face extremely high food costs.
Because of this, many people continue to rely on hunting, fishing, trapping, and harvesting traditional foods and medicines.
These are not simply traditions.
They are essential to food security, health, and community well being.
Growing up, when I wasn't feeling well, my grandmother would make teas and share remedies that have been passed down through generations.
Today, I continue learning from family members, friends, and elders about the medicines that exist on our lands and the knowledge that accompanies them.
That knowledge is valuable and it deserves to be respected and it deserves to be protected.
Across many indigenous communities, we continue to see higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, chronic illness, and mental health challenges.
These issues are connected to generations of displacement from our lands, the disruption of traditional food systems, poverty, food insecurity, and barriers to health care.
Before processed foods and refined sugars became common, our ancestors relied on the land for nourishment and healing.
Traditional medicines, plants, teas, berries, and harvesting practices supported community wellness for generations.
Traditional knowledge is not something that belongs only in the past, it is living knowledge.
It continues to support the health, well being and resilience of our communities today.
As an autistic and indigenous person, I also believe we need to talk honestly about access.
Too many indigenous people with disabilities still face barriers to health care, mental health support, education, transportation, and culturally safe services.
In many northern communities, services that people in urban centers take for granted simply do not exist.
People are often forced to leave their families and communities to receive care.
Disability rights must include indigenous, northern and remote realities.
Indigenous persons with disabilities are diverse.
We come from different nations, communities, cultures, genders, and identities, yet we all deserve to be included, respected, and heard.
As we work toward a more inclusive future, it is important that indigenous persons with disabilities are not only included in conversations, but recognized as leaders, knowledge keepers, advocates, and change makers within their communities and beyond.
I stand here today carrying the teachings of my family, the strength of indigenous communities from across Treaty nine territory, and the voices of indigenous youth with disabilities who deserve to be heard.
Our knowledge matters, experiences matter, our leadership matters.
As we move forward, we must recognize that protecting indigenous rights, protecting disability rights, and protecting the land are not separate goals.
They are all connected, Migch.
Thank you, Cat, for your powerful presentation.
Thanks for sharing your story and thanks for being a voice for Indigenous youth with disability.
Thank you very much.
That was wonderful.
Thank you.
It's now my opportunity to hand over to colleagues from the Global Network of Indigenous people with disability to share their stories and their knowledge and wisdom.
Our first speaker is Arnie K Sadler.
Aunt is the Chairperson of the First People's Disability Network, Australia.
FPN is the National Representative Organization for Australia's First Peoples with Disability.
Over to you, Aunt.
If I break it, it's not my fault.
Nargan Mar, good morning.
Guy gu, Nurn Baba Yaban K Sadler, Natawu Birai woman, Duren Gatnga.
Hello to you all.
My name is K.
I am speaking in my native language, Katang.
I'm a proud indigenous woman with a disability from Australia.
I am Galban a woman.
I am a sister, I'm a mother, I'm a grandmother.
I am a leader and an der of my community.
I am the chair of the National, which Uncle Damian just said, the National Organization representing Indigenous Australians with disabilities, the First Peoples Disability Network, Australia.
I'm also a proud member of the Revived Global Network of Indigenous People with Disabilities.
It is a great honor to be amongst you all here today, and I'm humbled to be here representing my people.
As an elder, I am the custodian of my traditional language of tongue.
I'm actively involved in its ongoing revival.
Language has an empowering effect.
It connects me to my ancestors, it gives me a voice, makes me feel confident, actually giving me a feeling of being whole.
The colonizers of Australia denied my ancestors the right to speak their language.
This denial of our language was an attempt by the colonizers to destroy our cultures.
Won, won gana, a waable wb Gane always was, always will be our culture and our country.
In terms of having a disability, we have no comparable word for disability.
This is because we have always understood that to have a disability, it is to be part of a human experience.
In our ancient culture, we didn't see difference.
Everyone in community had a value role.
It has been proven by ancient archaeological discovery in a remote national park in Australia where a single footprint that archaeologists believe shows a one legged man using a stick and participating in a hunt.
This has been dated back to 20,000 years ago.
We also know that we have had signed languages in existence for many thousands of years and is commonplace for people who are vision impaired to be traditional healers, for example.
As a garban a woman, it is my role to connect to Mother Earth, Nya Bai, and to nurture her.
My people have a deep knowledge of the seasons, the way in which the winds blow, and the ways in which we keep Mother Earth safe.
We were the first astronomers and the first to navigate the stars.
As indigenous Australians, we are of the land.
We are part of the land.
The land is actually us and all of us.
We have knowledge of our country that have dated at least 60,000 years ago, making me a member of the longest continual culture on Earth.
Today, mother is hurting at my home and globally.
This is because those that came from far away brought with them the industrial practices that were about taking from country.
Their worldview was how to exploit land for resources.
My culture says, how do I protect Mother Earth? Therefore, my role as a custodian of my country is to actively care for country through my traditional knowledge and to help slow the process of climate change.
In some parts of the Eastern Seaboard today, we are seeing greater involvement of us as indigenous Australians in protecting country by utilizing our cultural knowledge.
We have always used fire to manage country according to the seasons so that our country regenerates in the way the seasons have always dictated.
My fellow indigenous brothers and sisters with disabilities from around the world, we share common ground in the ways that we understand disability and the impacts of climate change.
This is why we must have a global network of indigenous peoples with disabilities with the appropriate resources to be able to present the views of all our peoples.
We have the knowledge together we could find the solution.
Amganbu and thank you very much.
Thank you, aunt.
Powerful words and acknowledging you aunt as my war my elder.
It's very special to hear our language spoken here at the United Nations.
Thank you, aunt.
Lata Tabu, Indigenous woman from Fiji, the floor is yours.
Thank you.
Bovaa, I bring greetings from Fiji and the Pacific.
I am Lana Tatimamu, Indigenous women with disability, Ital indigenous descent, and I bring the voices of people with disability, in particular, women and girls with disability from a Pacific region, Melonsia, Macrnesia, Polynesian regions that are interwoven into the Pacific region.
I My statement today will be focusing on climate change and disasters and it impacts on women and girls with disability in general people with disability in Fiji and the Pacific.
Distinguished Chairs excellency, indigenous leaders, and relatives.
I acknowledge with respect the indigenous people of this land and people with disability globally who continue to protect country, language, and community.
I speak today on behalf of the global network Indigenous people with disability.
Too often climate change is discussed in infrastructure.
Temperature and economics.
But for indigenous women with disabilities across Fiji and the Pacific, climate change is not a feature risk.
It is a lived realities.
It is changing where people live, how water and food access, whether community and whether cultural knowledge are continued to be passed.
These impacts are not felt equally D cyclones, floods, and extreme weather events, inaccessible evacuation systems leave many behind.
Early warning systems are not accessible, Shelters are not inclusive.
Access to health services and assistive devices and technologies are not accessible and safe.
Services become more difficult.
Climate change is not only about disasters, slow change in soil erosion, salt water and declining food systems are already affecting daily lives and cultural continuity.
For indigenous women with disabilities, care responsibility increase while support systems decrease.
Sorry.
Across the Pacific, indigenous women are carers, knowledge holders and communities leaders.
Indigenous women with disabilities carry these roles often, yet their leadership, often overlooked.
Today, we challenge the deficit narrative.
Indigenous women with disability are not passive recipients of care.
They are leaders of care, they are holders of knowledge.
They are right holders.
Indigenous knowledge reminds us with people, ocean and well being are deeply interconnected for generations, indigenous communities adapted to environmental change through collective care, reity and and resilience, yet climate and disability policy remain disconnected.
When indigenous women with disability often excluded, critical cultural knowledge are lost.
Advancing leadership means more than consultation.
It means resourcing indigenous women with disabilities to lead climate change and disasters, preparedness and adaptation and governance.
It means recognizing women with disabilities, organizations of persons with disability as experts, and our slogan of nothing about us without us.
Climate financing is accessible from the outset.
It requires accessible early warning systems, evacuation processes in communities, engagement and education.
It also means protecting cultural rights to connect to water, land.
And identity.
We call on member states, UN agencies, development partners to recognize indigenous persons with disabilities, especially women with disabilities as leaders in climate action.
It directly to indigenous women with disabilities across Fiji and the Pacific, ensure UNCRPD and other UN commitments.
Are reflected in climate policies and frameworks.
Finally, understand this.
Care is not dependency, it is relationship, knowledge is not historical, it is living, rights are not optional, they are foundational.
Climate justice will not be achieved without disability justice.
Disability justice won't be achieved without indigenous leadership.
Indigenous leadership include women and girls with disability.
We Nkavae.
Thank you.
Thank you, Loni.
Thank you for bringing the perspective of indigenous women and girls with disability and critically raising the impacts of climate change that are facing our Pacific Island brothers and sisters, which is a crisis for many communities in that part of the world.
It's my great pleasure to introduce Chrissy Cowan, ON ZM, AT Aroa from Cappo May.
Thank you, Chrissy.
Khiari, au, au, Kao, Tehe morira.
The bird calls at dawn, the day begins.
It is light, it is day, it is daylight.
Behold, there is life.
The Nakota Noreda Nakakt Nakot Ku.
Greetings to you all who have come to support the purpose of today.
Therefore, greetings to you all.
Ka, my name is Christina Krissy Cowan and I am an Indigenous Mardi woman of Altera, New Zealand.
My tribal affiliations are Nati Kahuu Rangatan Nuro.
I am the Chief Executive Officer of Kapur Mardi Alteo New Zealand, KMA, of which I will speak about shortly.
I wish to acknowledge my fellow Indigenous peoples with disabilities Global Network members and thank our sponsors hosting today's event.
I also take this opportunity to clarify that my presentation reflects the experiences and opinions of KMA members, Mary who live with disabilities, their Fano, and communities.
Also, I will speak to the state of Mardi Disability Rights in Alieu in 2026 about KMA.
We are a national Mardi led charity, an exemplar of indigenous self determination formed in 1983 by Mardi who live with disabilities and Defo.
We are the oldest Indigenous New Zealand Disabled People's Organization, DPO, under Article 4 0.3 comment seven of the UNCRPD in Al Cho.
Fani, the Declaration of Independence of New Zealand and Ty or Waitangi, the Treaty of Waitangi form our foundation.
Mato Rang A Mari Madi knowledge, skills, traditional practices, and contemporary development, mean our Tkanga Madi, customary practices, values, ethics, and protocols informs how we govern, work, and interact with each other, our stakeholders, allies, partners, and government.
Any person regardless of ethnicity and disability can access KMA supports and services.
We are proud to be a founding member of the Global Network of Indigenous peoples with disabilities and are honored to be here today to launch the network.
Relaunch the network rather.
If you wish to learn more about KMA, our website address is warp.org dotz.
The State of Altao New Zealand Indigenous Disability Rights.
Mardi who live with a disability are a minority within the disability community and in New Zealand society as a whole.
Since introducing the UNC RPD in 2008, there has been minimal investment by successive governments to improve our lives, the lives of Alfano and our communities life outcomes.
In 2025, the New Zealand coalition government acknowledged in its 2026 to 2030 disability strategy that Mardi who live with a disability life outcomes were far worse than non indigenous disabled people.
However, our rights as indigenous peoples who live with a disability are being systematically taken away by an onslaught of government policy and law reforms.
We are under siege.
We are being stripped of our decision making powers over our land and water.
Our status as guardians of the land is being nullified.
Decision makers do not have to recognize Mary relationships.
Removal of T Mardi language, words from primary school reading materials, slashing of funding to resource Mardi teachers, and removal of To Mardi from government departments, public signage, the media, and school books.
These changes undermine Mardi sovereignty, partnership, and equity in education.
The percentage of Mardi youth experiencing high levels of psychological distress over time has increased.
In the 2023, 2024 period, 15 to 19-year-old Mardi had the highest rate of hospitalizations for attempted suicide or self harm.
The government's third disability strategy expresses their commitment to improve the lives of Mardi who live with a disability.
However, the strategy is devoid of actions to improve the life outcomes of Mardi who live with a disability, their Phno and communities.
The Disability Support Services, the SS Bill 2026, does not recognize the true financial and emotional costs carried by families caring for disabled Phno.
Recent data confirmed that disabled people are more likely than non disabled people to be victims of crime and for Mardi who live with a disability, the inequity is even greater.
The Royal Commission of Inquiry into historical abuse in state care and in the care of faith based institutions noted the lack of Mardi led justice initiatives that are inclusive of Mardi who live with a disability.
They were not supported in ways that reflect Mardi values and not sufficiently visible in criminal justice systems data.
Al or New Zealand is classified as a developed country.
However, the New Zealand coalition government is introducing legislation and reshaping policies that undermine the core values, traditions, culture, and rights of Mardi who live with a disability.
KMA puts forward the proposition that the global network of indigenous peoples with disabilities is the flat platform that will enable indigenous, disabled persons, their families, and communities to drive transformative change and action within our home countries and globally.
We know the challenges because we live them on a daily basis.
We know what equitable engagement and change looks like.
We have the commitment, drive and resilience.
We just need the resources to support and build our network infrastructure and systems.
Kano, Kati, Taku Corridor, miui Kyoto, the Nakotok Takt Kat.
That is all I have to say.
My sincere thanks to you all.
Greetings to you all.
Go.
Okay.
Wonderful.
Thanks, Auntie.
Please join me in thanking our panelists.
There have been some powerful presentations, wonderful, strong words and a great thing to hear our traditional languages being spoken today in the United Nations.
We've got an opportunity to have some question and answers for the next 15 minutes or so, we'd love to have some comments and questions for panelists.
Please raise your hand or press your mic or whatever is best way for you to get our attention, that'd be great.
Jared, over to you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Damian and thank you so much to all the speakers.
My question is building on what was said and particularly hearing indigenous languages some thousands of years old here at the UN.
What a privilege that is.
It shows not only that language and culture of First Nations people survived throughout time, but also that the UN itself remains a relevant place for us all.
I think that's really incredible in these times.
I recall also there were in the early days of um, of the UN and the latter stage of the League of Nations.
Indigenous people went there.
There were some Mahdi chiefs who went trying to claim for breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi.
They weren't successful.
But here we are 100 years later still finding the UN to be a relevant space.
My question, I suppose is on the relevance of the UN today for indigenous peoples First nations around the world, as a source of coming together, discussing, raising the difficult questions, holding states accountable, also as a source potentially of hope for improvement.
Then also maybe a bit about, I suppose it also shows the value of having a global network that the shared challenges, struggles, the solidarity that can bring.
Maybe it's a bit of an oblique question, but any reflection on that, I'd really love to hear them.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Jared.
Perhaps Chrissy might want to reflect on those comments by Jared there.
Gilda.
Yeah, the The history around the treaty that you mentioned and the struggles we've had.
The treaty is going to be over 200 years young I think in the next couple of years.
What we're experiencing now in Al or New Zealand from a national level is the breach of the first human rights document in New Zealand, which was 18 40 it was signed.
Sadly, what's also happening with the UNCRPD and coming here in particular, is to highlight those issues for our country when, like I said, now it's happening now for our people, and it's happening through legislative change.
So I'm not sure if I'm answering your question, but the importance of this global network, as you heard, we all have similar collective issues and challenges and that coming together, at least we can talk it through and come up with a collective solution regardless of country.
That's my templates.
Thanks.
Yes.
Thank you very much.
Well, I wanted to comment on the importance of why this global network is so important.
We made a presence in 2010 for the first time.
Have you there is no translation right now.
Part amine Thank you, Olga.
Jared, I might offer some reflections as well.
Some of the common issues we all experience as indigenous people with disability, whether we be colonized by the English or the Spanish or the French or Belgians or Germans, denial and language of culture is common to all of us, and the removal of children from their families is common to all of us.
It happened to our people in Australia, it happened to indigenous Canadians.
It happened to Maori.
And we all are at the forefront in our countries of the experiences of climate change.
It's very acute for all of us, as Cat described in the situation in Canada.
In parts of Australia, there are urgent climate consequences, New Zealand the same, and we are very concerned about the situation for our indigenous brothers and sisters in the Pacific in particular.
There are Pacific nations who are at risk of frankly disappearing.
That brings a whole new dimension to the loss of culture.
In fact, in some ways, it will be unprecedented in human history in some senses.
For all of us as indigenous people, connection to country and land is everything.
We are of the land that is common to all of us.
Yet if people literally lose their land, how will they maintain connection to culture and country? As a collective of indigenous people with disability, we remain very concerned about the situation for our indigenous brothers and sisters in the Pacific, especially.
Another common issue that we all experience is the overrepresentation of indigenous people with disability in prisons.
In Australia today, in our juvenile detention centers, most young people are indigenous.
Virtually everybody in a juvenile detention center in my country is indigenous and they are very likely to have a disability.
The same could be said for my brothers and sisters from A TROA.
I'm sure it's a common experience in Canada as well.
So we're talking about very serious human rights violations, and that's why we must have a global network that is properly resourced so we can share these stories and make our advocacy to the UN system.
More commentary and questions from the floor, please.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you for this panel.
I come from the land of the Piscataway in Annapolis, Maryland, USA and would like to ask the panel if we could have one or two very immediate actions that we as allies or accomplices could take after this meeting to support you.
Great question.
I might look to Sister Lane for a comment on this one first, and then perhaps Arie K might want to say a few words and Thank you.
Thank you for the question.
One of the call to action as we all had alluded to is the recognition of the importance of having this global indigenous disability network, but also recognizing and the the commitment towards our capitals in terms of UN Convention on the Rights of persons with disability and also the UN Permanent Indigenous Treaty to ensure that the voices of indigenous people globally are heard through different leadership spaces, resourcing, mobilizing of resourcing and protecting the rights and dignity of indigenous people globally.
Thank you, did you want to.
Actually, only two, that's really hard.
It's like the genie gets three wishes, doesn't she gives.
Look, my passion has always been youth, children from the day that they're born to they hit school.
That is where we can do the best for children.
If we could have more resourcing for early childhood development.
And then continue on into the first five years of school.
Now the first five years is like a sponge for children.
They absorb knowledge.
In turn, I'm teaching my 2-year-old English plus tangue and she can count in tang.
If someone asks her and she's very smart, how old are you? Instead of saying two, she goes, Ba, which is two in tang.
So I want to I want to make her journey as safe and, as easy as possible opposed to what is happening now.
In the next, she's two now, so I'll give it another three years.
But if change does not happen in our schools and in early childhood, we're not fixing a problem.
We're just adding.
In other words, by the time they get to school, they've already set in their ways and things do not change.
That is my wish.
Thank you.
Child, and thank you for your question.
I think the biggest thing for us as indigenous people who have been colonized, all generations our ancestors to now have always been told This is what you do.
We looked upon as you can't really manage yourselves or your funds and we'll do that for you.
What we're asking here today is to give us our own self determination as indigenous peoples who live with disabilities.
As allies and supporters that are sitting in this room, we need the UN to step up and say the global network of indigenous people with disabilities is a group that deserves to have their own self determination, to have their own budget, to have the ability to call on more of our people around the world like yourselves and your networks in our different countries.
To me, it's all about that.
Give our dignity back, give our self determination back, give our pride back and By supporting and showing some real solution focused support.
Like, we do know how to budget and, come on, we're not.
That's me.
Thank you, Auntie Olga.
Go, para personas indigenous cap Guatemala, person indigenous capita Guatemala, and the La s con is persons, reproducol sexual mental, DNA transcends the in Thank you, Olga.
Tal Catalina first, then you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You go.
Go Mexico, intersection participation effectiven participation, I think we'll have to make this the final comment.
My question isn't too long.
Looking from a future perspective and what is the group's idea in sustaining leadership and ensuring the prosperity of the group into the ever changing future.
Then my second part of the question is how will the group incorporate indigenous youth leadership to sit at the global tables? Thank you, Tarawa.
We absolutely identify youth and young people as a priority.
I think the opportunity today to grow youth representation, if I may put Cat on the spot to work together with Tara to grow our youth voice is going to be critical.
We absolutely see it as a priority issue.
So thank you for raising that Tarawa.
I'm sure Cat and Tarawa will be in touch with each other and move things forward.
Thank you very much for that comment.
Catalina is it? Caroline, I'm sorry, necessary access the mercado in Australia, seeps Yes.
Thank you.
Good morning.
My name is Diana and I am speaking today on behalf of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples.
I will change to Spanish because it's a little bit easier for me, and I think we have a lot of Spanish speakers here.
Testimonial, including the Thanks very much for your question.
We're getting very close to time, so we will share with you our priorities when we meet if that's okay.
I do want to acknowledge the comments about geographic isolation that were made.
That is a really critical issue that you've raised and thank you for raising that.
It's my opportunity now to offer some closing remarks.
A co chair of the Global Network of Indigenous people with disability, together with my friend and sister Olga Montefi Thank you, my indigenous brothers and sisters, for your powerful presentations.
I also extend our deepest gratitude to the governments of Australia, Canada, Guatemala and Mexico for co sponsoring this side event.
It's been deeply moving to hear our traditional languages spoken here today at the United Nations.
As indigenous persons with disability, we are the true thought leaders on inclusion.
We have always understood that disability is simply part of the human experience.
Our knowledge, wisdom, and natural way of being are our gifts to the world, rooted in a profound understanding of our shared humanity.
Today, our voices are more critical than ever.
As custodians and protectors of Mother Earth, we feel the devastating effects of climate change acutely, a reality that unites indigenous peoples with disabilities globally.
Yet we continue to face disproportionate hardships.
Indigenous peoples experience significantly higher rates of disability worldwide.
This is often the direct result of preventable health conditions, systemic poverty, and the enduring generational trauma of colonial violence.
The assault on our cultures and languages has been relentless, but we are still here.
We are survivors.
However, the crisis continues.
Today, too many of our children with disabilities are still being forcibly removed from their families and cultures.
Our youth die by suicide at the highest rates in the world, and our people with disability are vastly overrepresented in prisons.
As indigenous peoples, we stand at the often brutal intersection of racism and ableism.
Because of this intersectionality, our voices remain largely unheard.
We are reduced to a mere footnote, a single sentence in disability rights and a single sentence in indigenous rights.
Consequently, our human rights remain among the most unrecognized in the global system.
Is so often the way in the world, the systems designed to protect humanity continue to leave us behind.
But we will not be silenced.
Today, we proudly relaunch the global network of indigenous persons with disabilities.
We rise to give an unyielding voice to the most marginalized in the global community.
We intend to be far more than just a voice at the table.
We will lead the global response to climate change for people with disabilities.
Above all, we are here to share our ancient wisdom.
We offer a deep understanding of our common humanity, and we honor the sacred valued role that people with disabilities have held and will always hold in our communities.
Thank you.
This concludes our side event.
Thank you.